With characteristic inaccuracy, the radio informed me as I left this morning that we would experience “light showers throughout the day.†Bullpuckie. It was already snowing when I heard the words: heavy, sloppy snow that wouldn’t have been a “light shower†even if it had arrived in liquid form. And the drivers I met on my commute were driving very badly indeed.
Now, New Jersey drivers deserve their reputation, but it’s for aggressiveness and lack of consideration, not out of any inability to handle weather. Snow and rain and potholes they handle just fine. So why are the roads littered with spinouts and crumpled fenders this morning? Why is everyone driving like a bunch of Georgians paralyzed by a little sleet?
My armchair psychological theory is that they’re driving to defy winter. It’s officially the first day of spring, and we’ve already had a few spring-like days, so it’s easy to resent a late March snow. So my guess is that drivers believe, somewhere deep down, that if they pretend the snow isn’t there, it won’t be.
Sorry, guys. Mother nature doesn’t care, and you ignore her at your peril. If only you could do it without endangering more circumspect drivers—or pedestrians!–like myself in the process.
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